Ugly Is To The Bone!

Was it an intentional (flagrant) foul, and should Creighton's coach, and players get the Sean Payton treatment? You make the call.

If you are Coach Williams, do you play Kendall Marshall on Friday if Kendall says he's ready to go, or do you keep him on the bench? You make the call.

Here's my call...
The cast came off earlier this week according to Kendall Marshall's Twitter update, and he's pretty up tempo about things. On that note, Kobe Bryant played days after having repairs made to his shooting hand, so who's to say that Kendall will not play at least against Kansas/NC State on Sunday barring they continue the path and defeat Ohio? I can say this... if I am Coach Williams (and I am not, and Roy's been winning for years without me!) I bring to the attention of Fridays ref's the UNC - Creighton game and the Syracuse - UNCA game.

A good (clean) hard foul on a drive to the basket means the defensive player does not allow the offensive player (shooter) to extend his arms, and make an attempt at a possible made shot. Anyone that's ever had the ability to dunk a basketball, and has been undercut, knows that a push is not acceptable. Being hacked, or held is one thing, but you don't dump a player on his head with a cheap foul, and push him. The refs can't catch everything, but this year has shown that the striped shirts are very human, and very flawed! Get a grip, bite your lip, and let'em rip! Eject a few dirty players please, and send a message! Henson got his technical, and he deserved it, but it should go both ways. The shove from double nothing on Zeller, and the extending of the right arm that sent Marshall to the floor were deserving of flagrant foul calls, if not ejections! 

Regardless of the then's and that's, this is now, and I, Coach Williams and UNC faithful am a BELIEVER! Two down and four to go! GO HEELS!!!

Marshall's X-Ray Misread, Not Broken!?

OK let's get the ugly out of the way first. Creighton was a very physical team, and were allowed a few too many cheap shots. One could say that's all on the players because at that level they know better, or one could say it's mostly on the refs for missing the calls (especially to double thrust up near the neck and throat area of Carolina's Tyler Zeller delivered by Creighton's big man who with that play characterized his thought processing and age to match his number: double zero), or one could say it's on the coach for encouraging dirty pool, which went above and beyond playing physical, and tough. You can be physical, and even mentally tough, without being dirty. It was a dirty played game at times! OK that's the ugly.

Now onto the bad... the bad is that an injury is an injury. There is no pretty side to that. Not being able to play at 100% is horrible for a competitor, period! Bad is having a crack so tiny, that you can't see it with the naked eye, but it shows up on an enlarged x-ray.

The good... Kendall Marshall doesn't have to score like Kobe Bryant, he only has to be as tough as Kobe! Kobe broke his shooting wrist earlier this season and is still playing, He missed a little time after surgery, but still played. They have Marshall's wrist in a cast, but no ligament damage, so Kendall could still be cleared to play! Football players play in cast all the time. Kendall's presence would be enough to bother a lot of opponents. Plus Kendall only needs to distribute the ball and avoid turnovers, so the wrist may not completely keep him out.

Also on a good note, some hater was just rushed to the hospital psych ward after reading the title to this blog. That same hater that rushed to read the title, then rushed to share with all of his/her hater pals on Google+, and Facebook, and a few more went with him/her. I am not totally morbid! The good in that is that the haters missed their self-diagnosis thinking they were having a coronary, and it was just a panic attack, so they will be fine by the time someone with sense reads the blog through it's entirety, and tells them that the title was a hoax.

To conclude:
The good, Kendall could still play in a few weeks, this is a long tournament. The bad, we have to survive without him, and for even a few minutes without Kendall could prove fatal to the title shot we had hoped for this season. The ugly, got put out in the first round by a school from Bethlehem, PA. Gone now is Lehigh, but thank you for your first round devil removing services, and congrats on a brilliant first tourney win. Go Heels!

How (Not) To Gain A Starting Position

As a youngster in a large city, you are the fastest kid on the block or perhaps even the school. The you graduate preschool, and move up to grade school, and you're still the fastest kid in your class. Then you advance to middle school, where nothing much has changed and yep you still run faster, jump higher, and are more athletically gifted than the rest. In high school you are the standout point guard. Your dad was a decent player, and he's worked with you over the years, so no shame in your game to this point. You are sought after by some prestigious universities, and the recruiters are calling daily, and desire to sport their colors on your back. You are on top of the world and feel sooooooo important! You just know that no school can make it without your services.

Let me say that I believe in confidence, but arrogance sucks wind, and blows chunks. Don't get me wrong, I believe we could all be a little happier every now and then, but we could also be a lot more pitiful! Whatever the situation, that is still no excuse to act like a Cry Baby!

Where is the whole "Cry Baby" drama stemming from? Larry Drew II, or as the Tar Heel faithful affectionately refer to him as, SOK (Some Other Kid)! Well SOK was quoted by Ben Bolch of the LA Times as saying in the May 28th article, "When you're winning, everything's good. When you're losing, it's opposite. Going to a school like that, I was aware of the potential for how things could be. I wasn't aware to the extent."

Yes, it's "Man Up" time! Not, "They booed me mama, I can't go back there," time! You can't handle that at the collegiate level, then how in the world can you believe that you are good enough to go pro!? Living in LA have you ever been to Chavez Ravine as a kid? Well I was blessed and fortunate enough to visit there plenty. I heard guys boo Enos Cabell, and yell false accusations of his drug abuse, before his drug abuse was ever brought to light. OK baseballs not your thing, how about a date with the NBA? Ever been to MSG? They booed John Starks, and even NBA legend, and Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing! Yes on their home floor!!! What's even worse than being booed? Being on a team where you can hear a mosquito in the rafters fart, because your fans can't even muster up the strength to stomach a boo! Then you see the twenty-thousand plus dwindle to about two-thousand, as the seats empty. Sadly enough that's the most noise you hear all game, is when the fans are leaving! Welcome to the early years of Sedale Eugene Threatt, and company. That's booing my friend. When your fans are used to big things, and winning, they get a little cranky when that's not happening. Go ask Reggie Miller about Spike Lee at courtside. Check in with Nicholson as he throws up a choke sign atcha!

SOK later said that while he was at his party, he was venting, not "dissing" anyone. He just had to get the following off of his chest, but again allow me to remind you, he's not dissing anyone... SOK said, via rapping at a party, "They tried to tell me just to play my role, but who's really trying to stick to a script full of typos?"

Where did he see typos? And even for a rapper, he is grammatically off! OK on that note, here's a quick survey... All of those who truly feel that SOK deserved starting time over Ty Lawson raise your hand. None of you!? Wow! Was he good enough as a freshman to be the back up even? Oh but wait, an even better question! Who thinks SOK deserves a start over Kendall Marshall? WOW! Same results as before! My opinion isn't much so let's go to the facts. Here's the fact sheet on SOK:


In the '08-'09 season he averaged a little over nine and a half minutes a game. So who's lying, the kid who cried about not getting to play, or the coach that gave him limited playing time based upon his (poor) decision making, and inability? Wow! So he (SOK) did play some didn't he? That last question was rhetorical, and moving right along... with his playing time, those non-existent (according to SOK) 9.6 minutes he averaged a very impressive 1.9 assists, and 1.2 turn overs. Even with limited play, or a better term for you freshmen, "especially" with limited playing time, turn overs can change your nickname from "Driving Larry Drew II," to "Driving Miss Daisy II!" The road traveled by a turn over king is a very short, and rocky road to the pines, right next to coach, or even worse to the end of the bench where you are ostracized! Let's look at it this way, two to one in the assist to turn over ratio department is OK if you are averaging 12 assists per game. Even if you give up six baskets with your six turn overs on fast break points you're only sacrificing as many points as you have in your 12 assists that have earned your team double the points at 24 or possibly but not probable 36 points. So unless you crack under pressure with your team down 12 in the last minute and a half of the game and you yield your six turn overs then, you are in good shape. It's not likely that is going to happen, but again possible, although not probable. So if in the game you surrender the ball six times, but have twelve assists to cover you, the opposition with six three point goals still trail you by six or eighteen points! That's three trips to the foul line on two point baskets or nine trips on three point baskets. Bad shot decisions on your teams behalf, or no defense could be the blame, but it's not all on you if the team loses. Two to one assist to turn over ratio with two assists, and one turn over, is four points in your favor, and the possibility of two or three points against you. That's a shot away from defeat! Which in most every coach, player, and fans mind is no bueno!  So with numbers like 3.9 assists, and 2.0 in turn overs, there is no room to cry. When you play against mediocre teams, and have 6 assists and 3 turn overs, you shouldn't go away feeling like you are an all-star. When you have more turn overs than assist in big games and your team loses by a basket, or twenty points (see the GA Tech game) that should tell you something! It told Coach Williams something, "START KENDALL MARSHALL!" See the 2010-2011 Vanderbilt, Minnesota, and Texas games just for beginners.

So SOK, have fun in the sun, and keep working on that individual game, Barnes, Marshall, The Twin Tar Heel Towers, and supporting cast will be working together to make this season just as successful as last season. To conclude, thank you SOK for bailing, it ranks as the second best thing to happen to Carolina in the last decade! The #1 thing would be getting a great coach that knows how to bench a Cry Baby, and win!

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